The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a Protestant pastor’s admission, in a conversation with his co-pastor (and brother-in-law), that he sexually abused the latter’s 13-year-old niece, does not fall under the state’s clergy-penitent privilege.
The court, citing an earlier decision, ruled that a legally protected confession is “a confidential acknowledgment or admission of a crime, sin, or fault to a member of the clergy, priest, or Christian Science practitioner for the purpose of absolution.”
“The dispositive question is not whether the penitent’s tradition observes a rite of absolution, but whether the communication sought spiritual absolution, consolation, or guidance,” the court continued. “Accordingly, a party invoking the Clergy-Penitent Privilege must first establish that the communication constitutes a confession.”